Angel: The Next Generation
by Scaramouche Khashoggi
Summary: A new generation of champions must step forward to battle the forces of darkness after the devestating ending of the Last Battle. Will they be able to assemble before the Senior Partner's next attack?
1. of heroes and evils

**AN: This story pretty much picks up after Not Fade Away. I'll try to incorperate as many characters from Angel and Buffy that I can, but the story will involve OC's as well. **

**PS: I don't own Angel, if I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.**

the rise of new heroes and an old evil

The young man ran through the dark streets of Los Angeles. He pursued hi quarry relentlessly. The chase continued for two more blocks before he closed the distance between him and his target. Without breaking pace, Connor Angel, or as he was known to most the world Connor Reilly, pulled a stake from his sleeve a threw it into the vampire's back. The stake hit it's target and dust flew to the ground. He stalked over to the pile of ash to retrieve his weapon. He was barely bothered from the long run. He was sure his father would not be amused if he knew his son could be winded in a short chase with a vampire.

He stopped his train of thought there. It had been barely a month since Angel's last battle with Wolfram and Hart, but in that time Connor had taken on his father's job of protecting the city from evil. Ever since his memories had come back he had been planning to one day fight for the greater good. As odd as it was, the Last Battle had been his first chance to do just that. The next night he had sought out the remnants of Angel Investigations, but he had found none. He had gone to the Hyperion Hotel first, but the place was empty. He wasn't quite sure how or why, but his search then took him to the alley. The alley of his birth and his mother's death. There was only one body there, but he knew that this had been where the final fight had happened. He rememebered rushing to the still form of Charles Gunn, hoping in vain that the man had survived, but to no avail. He remebered searching the ally for other bodies, but the Senior Partners had been sure to clean up their mess. All that had been left behind had been Gunn's body, and two sodden and trampled piles of ash. He knew one of those was all that remained of his father. The other one had no doubt been the blond vampire whom he met when visiting Wolfram & Hart, he had been called Spike. He didn't know wherethe other bodies were, but he knew it would have been pointless to seek them out.

After that, Connor had collected the ashes of the two vampires into two seperate jars he had found in the Hyperion's negected kitchen and gave his father and his two comrades a burial in the equally neglected garden of the hotel. It was then that he desided to reopen his father's business. At first his other family had been angry that he had chosen to drop out of college to become a private investigator (_a _normal private investigator as far as they were concerned). But he would not let their feelings get in the way, Los Angeles had lost its gaurdians, and it needed someone to replace them before the place was overun by demons. Thats where Connor came in. He managed to find a cheap office to rent. Part of him wanted to continue Angel Investigations at the Hyperion, but the memories were still too overwhelming to deal with. So he decided on a cheap two room office space until he could get his emotions in check. It consisted of a front room and a back office, which was more space the he needed for his one man operation.

And now he worked as a one man private investigation company that fought the forces of evil. But has he vanished into the night, he couldn't help but wonder, how long could he keep that up?

Just as Conor was falling into his new life, half way around the globe in Ireland another person was preparing to join him in the fight. She waited as calmly as possible at the ticket line in the Dublin airport, but her patience was wearing thin. She had spent her almost her entire life watching the battle between good and evil, and now that she had her chance to join in the fight she had to wait for two American tourists to to explain why they didn't thin it was fair that they had to pay for a new set of tickets just because they had been so hungover this morning they missed their plane. Finaly, a different termianl was freed up and she was able to acquire her tickets.

"And how can I help you today?" the recpetionist asked her with a forced perkiness.

"One way ticket to Los Angeles, California," the girl replied back.

"You have excellent timing, you'll just be able to make it through security and make the next plane. It leaves in under an hour," the receptionist explained. Looking up from her computer she gave a start, something was wrong with the girl in front of her. In less then a minute her eyes had become glazed over and she seemed unaware of her suroundings. She seemed a little unbalanced, but somehow manged to stay on her feet by keeping a death grip on the counter that seperated them. She had noticed the brown haired girl had been extremely pale as though she hadn't seen a lot of sun lately, but she hadn't thought that she had been sick.

"Miss? Are you alright? Miss?" No avail, the girl seemed completly unaware, and it seemed that the edges of her round face were becoming discolored. This couldn't be good.

"Miss?"

As though she had just resurfaced from a pool of water the girl took a deep breath and swung slighlty forward so she could lean her weight on the counter. "Sorry about that," she muttered quickly.

"Are you alright?" the receptionist was amazed, the girl seemed to have just suffered a seizure or something but she treated it as a normal occurance.

"I'll be fine," the girl brushed it off, "but I think that flight may be leaving to early for me. You wouldn't happen to have anything leaving later?"

"Ummm, yes, actually we do. It will be leaving in three hours, you have a thirty minute layover in New York, and it'll be landing at 4:20 PM California time, is that good for you?" Such a strange girl the receptionist thought.

"Excelent."

"Now I'll be needing your name."

"It's Doyle, Grace Doyle."

The next vision came when she was one the airplane, halfway to New York. Today was a winning day for visions, two in under twelve hours. The first one in the airport had let her see that the plane she had nearly taken would of had a watcher and two slayers on it the whole way to the New York layover. She knew she didn't pose a threat to them, but why take the chance? You could never be too careful when it came to slayers. And now she was having another vision. She new not to fight it, and shut her eyes and watched it play out.

A young man with brown hair and peircing blue eyes. She new him as well as she new his father and his father's friends. He was glaring at a newspaper. He was angry, no angry was the wrong word, he was pissed. She tried to read the headline, but the vision was already jumping ahead to something else. It was the man again. This time he was walking into a lobby of an office building. The lobby was packed with well dressed people and media equipment. Judging by the signs flashing by it was some reopening. No, it couldn't be she thought... The vision was speeding up, the blue eyed man pulled a small crossbow out from under his baggy coat. People screamed, he was tackled by two large men before the bolt could even make it into the air. Then there was blood, and she could see a window giving her a name for the place.

An then the vision was gone and she was left seething with rage. She obviously had time to to find Conor and keep him from being an idiot and doing something that stupid. The Powers the Be wouldn't just send her this vision if she couldn't stop it. No thats not what enraged her. What had enraged her was the name on the window. Angel hadn't even fallen in battle a month ago, but they had come back as strong as ever. How could that happen. After all that had been lost, how could they already be rebuilt? But she had to wait to cross an entire continent before she could get any answers. Until then she had a single thought to haunt her: the wolf, the ram, and the hart had resurected.

**AN: Dun Dun Dun. And what awaits our new heroes as they set out to continue the battle left to them? Who else will join the ranks? Has anyone from Team Angel survived? And which adversaries are with the big bads? This and much more coming up in Angel: The Next Generation. **


	2. enter the city of

**AN: In case you failed to notice the notation in the first chapter- I don't own Angel or anything else in "Buffyverse." If I did, I would be churning out a screenplay or something right now ahem, hint hint Joss**

enter the city of...

Finaly, she had arrived. She had seen Los Angeles many times before, but physicaly being there had a whole new effect. She could actually feel like she was in the city, and not just living in some bazar dream. But she had no time to relish that she had finaly left Ireland behind her. She had to find the son of Los Angeles' greatest champion before he did something so completley hairbrained that it would totaly skew the coming battles between good and evil. She looked to the sky, the sun was alomost done its decent to the horizon. Her plane had been an hour late, by the time she had gotten herself out of that airport it was six o'clock. This gave her less then an hour to track down her future boss before he went hunting. That is if he actually waited to leave his building at sun down. Since he did not need to stick to his father's sunless scheduele, Grace pressumed that she wouldn't find him at the office, but it was worth a try.

At that moment Connor paced restlessly in the front office. he once again glanced at the light in the sky, waiting for the blazing disc to finally fall. In the past month he had come to hate moments like this. Waiting to go out and blindly hunt the demons that ran through the city at night. He never knew what he would be facing, and rarely knew where to go. It had never been like this for his father. For Angel there had always been someone there to se what was coming, whether it had been someone directly recieving visions from the Powers That Be, or the Host recieving warning bits and pieces from karaoke nights. But they were all gone, and he was not going to endanger someone's life so he could be a few steps ahead of the scum he hunted. He saw Cordelia's face in his mind. He thought about how different her life would have been if she had not become a reciever; she could have been normal, and she would still be out there somewhere, alive.

He took another look at the sun. It had fell only a little more in the sky.

"Fuck it," he murmered as he threw on his brown leather jacket and stalked out the door. Why not leave a little early? Hunting was his real job, it wasn't as though he had anyone coming to the offices looking for him.

Grace ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Of course the boy would get the stairs on the third floor. Clearing the third flight she belted down the gruby corrior to the office at the very end. A simple sign was taped to the door:

Angel Investigation

closed for the night

"Damn it!" she glowered, throwing her single bag to the floor. The sun had only set two minutes ago, where could he have gotten to already? "Damn him, damn him, damn him!" She screamed, emphisizing each damn with a small jump into the air.

Her small tantrum had merited the attention of the accupuncturist two office spaces down. He watched the bizarre brown haired girl with suprise. She glanced up and saw him staring at her with his key half way to the door to lock up for the night.

"O,err sorry about that," Grace muttered quckly, keeping her brown eyes on feet, "It's just that he was going to tell me tonight if he had any proof if my boyfriend was cheating."

The man smiled politely, "I sure no one would be so foolish as to cheat such a beautiful woman. If it doesn't work out though, I have a son a little older then you..."

"No," she interjected quickly, "O, no, no, no. This boy has made it so I won't be planning on dating anyone anytime soon." The man look crest fallen, but she did not need to complicate her life right now. She had enough to deal with.

Before she needed to explain anymore she grabbed her bag and raced back down the hallway. Rude, but effective. She now found herself racing blindly down the streets. Maybe she would just bump into him, there couldn't be that many demon infested streets in Los Angeles. Where the hell could he be? Efing PTB, never giving their little hints when she needed them, she glowered.

She had run through several blocks now, comletley lost in thought on how to find Connor. Stopping beneath a streetlamp she paused and listened, hoping that if he was fighting in the radius of a few blocks she would hear it. Grace had good hearing, not as good as her father's; but as they had not met until he was dead, it was hard to compare. She heard nothing though.

"You are not right. None with your appearance should have that endurance unless you were of the Slayers, which you are not. How do you do this?" an emotionless voice asked from behind her. Grace jumped, how could someone sneak up on her? She turned quickly pulling a dagger from her sleave. Standing with her was a woman with shocking blue eyes, with hair the hue. Grace knew this creature as she knew all of the others and felt her guard go down.

Illyria gaved into her eyes, no doubt seeking the answer to her question. "A quarter breed?" she questioned as she stalked around Grace, sizing up the girl.

"Twice removed from the line on my paternal side," graace mumbled quickly. She didn't have time for this, and she had no way of knowing where Illyria's loyalties lied now that Wesley was gone. She wanted to get away from the demon, now.

"But there is more," Illyria hissed. Eyes searching every part of Grace for an answer.

Before she could reply, Grace felt a tug at the back of her mind, and before she could do anything her eyes were glazed over and she distant;y heard her bag fall to the ground. This vision passed before her quickly, in nothing more then flashes, nothing fluid. There was Connor, fighting five vampires. He should have been able to fight them off, but his arm was badly mangled and he was loosing too much blood too fast. The last piece of the vision was a street sign. And then she was once again aware of her surroundings. She blinked and was greeted by two bright blue eyes only an inch away from her own.

"You see whats to come." It wasn't a question. It wasn't a lead in for an explanation. grace could have just said yes and left it at that. But she couldn't, not if she wanted to save Connor in time.

"Yes, I do," Grace explained, selecting her words carefully, "and I know that Angel's son is in danger. You can help me find him. And yes, I know Angel, I know about you, and I'll explain everything to you later if you help me now." She threw in the last part, sensing the tirade of questions that would be presented unless she baited Illyria with a bribe.

"Where is the seed of Angel?"

"Somewhere on a street called Heights Boulevard. There's five," but the god-king was gone. "I was goign to come too," she whispered. Looking around the street she voiced her thoughts out loud, "Now what?"

Connor hissed in pain as a vampire leapt off the roof top and sliced open his arm from shoulder to wrist. He swung about quickly and staked the vampire with his left arm. Putting his back to the wall, he cursed as five vampires surrounded him.

"Damn it," he snarled. He lept at the center vampire, tackiling him and shoving the stake through his heart. He hissed in pain as he tried to balance himself with his useless right arm. Before he could stand a vampire placed a kick between his ribs and sent him flying across the street into a rusted car. He saw white pain when his injured arm made contact with the car. He may remember his past, but it was still hard for Connor to adjust to feeling such pain again, as Quor-Toth seemed to be two lifetimes ago.

Getting up once again, Conor flew at the vampires with more vigor. He staked the one who had kicked him and began to take on two vampires who may have been twins in life. One wrapped his arm around Connor's throat while the second stalked forward with a knife.

"Big mistake," he hissed while swinging out his legsto kick away the appoaching vampire. He then pulled a knife out of his pocket and jabbed it into the side of the vampire holding him. The vampire loosened his grip from the pain of the stab and Connor threw hs head back into the vampire's as he slipped out of the demon's grasp. With a flick of his wrist the vampire was turned to ash.

Before he could react, his arm waspinned to his side in a death grip and the vampire's twin bit into his neck. But, a soon as the fangs had entered they were gone. Connor turned and wathced as a leather clad, blue haired woman tore the vampire's head from his body. He watched her in amazment as she turned around to look at him. He knew her, she had been at Wolfram & Hart before his memories had come back. But know that he looked at her he remembered her without the blue hair, and more modestly dressed. Her name had been Fred.

"Behind you!" she barked, he turned and landed a strong punch into the fifth vampires jaw. He ripped out a new stake and forced it through the beast's heart. Before he could turn back to Fred his legs gave out and he fell to the ground.

"You're weak. You've lost much blood."

"I'll be fine. I have a fast rebound," Connor gasped. "I just got to go back to the office," he muttered as he tried to stand, only to fail and sink to the ground.

"Office?" Ilyria cocked her head. Surely the seed of Angel would not be working for the wolf and its pack. Connor gasped out an address to explain.

"I will take you there. I want my answers." She said this as she thew Connor on her back.

"Answers?" He winced as Illyria made her way down through the city streets at her demonic pace. What questions could she have for him? As they made it to the building he felt his energy returning and be began to feel ridiculous riding piggy back. Without hesitating to ask him she raced up the stairs to the third floor. She let him down gently so he could unlock the door.

"How did you know?"

"I could sense where she was," Illyria gestured to a girl about his age sitting by the door. She didn't seem like much. Thin and pale, with mid-length brown hair and brown eyes, she seemed weak. Her clothes did nothing to toughen her image. A wrinkled brown jacket hung open, revealing a too large Hawain shirt and a worn tank top underneath.

"Jesus, I saw it, but I didn't think it was that bad." Before he could respond she snatched the key from his hand and opened the door. "Where's the first aid?" she asked as she walked into the office. He followed her grimacing, who did she think she was, sharging into his office, his home?

"I'm fine. Now get out." He glared at her, he wanter to intimidate her, but it didn't seem to work.

"Fine, you can get infected, but I'm not leaving." To make her point, Grace sat down in the chair behind the room's only desk. " 'Sides, you need me."

"Excuse me?"

Lord help her, the boy was dense. "How do you think Illyria found you?" Connor shot a look at Illyria.

"She saw your peril and I went to help," the blue one explained. "She promised explanations for my assistance."

"So you get visions? Like Cordi did?" he asked the girl at the desk. He had no way to be sure she had known Cordelia, but if she knew Illyria, then there was hope she understood.

"Just like her, minus the mind shattering migranes that is. But I should explain from the begining," Grace began. "You'll want a seat, its a somewhat long story, but it should explain everything."

"If you say so," he went into the backroom and grabbed a chair. "I've only got two," he explained to Illyria.

"I will stand."

Connor sat and nodded for the girl to begin.

"For starters my name is Grace Doyle, and the story begins a few years back when a vampire with a soul came to the city of Los Angeles..."

**AN: So thats all for now. The next chapter will give most of Grace's back story. The other two really don't need it, since only a month has passed since they had last been seen. As for why Illyria new where all the streets were, she has been wandering the streets of LA ever since the Last Battle, so she has just learned a lot of the city's layout. Till next time...**


	3. know the past, see the future

**AN: this chapter is mostly Grace's back story. It seems unfair to not give Connor and Illyria more face time, but we already know their background. I promise they'll have good face time in the chapters to come. **

**And a reminder, I have a small forehead, there for I am not Joss Whedon, which means I don't own Angel or anything else that originates in the buffyverse. **

know the past, see the future

"...the story begins a few years back when a vampire with a soul came to the city of Los Angeles. Well, thats not really where it begins," Grace corrected herself. She noted the flash of interest in Connor's eyes at the mention of his father. "This story actually begind a decade before that, in a little one room apartment, with a man shagging a woman. They were young and really didn;t care about anything more then the lust of the moment" Connor shifted his weight uneasily at the story's sudden change. Illyria on the other hand showed no discomfort, but rather tilted her head in interest. Grace couldn't hide the slight smile that played on her lips.

"The next morning the man and woman parted ways, deciding to leave the previous nights activities as a one night stand. The man went on with his life and didn't really think back on it. Hell, he pretty much forgot. The woman was on the road to doing likewise when she found out she was pregnant. She didn't know where to find the man, all she had was a first name, and one she wasn't even sure was real. Being a woman raised on Christian morals, she didn't see abortion as an option. And she had seen how living in an orphanage had messed up her one friend, and she wanted no kin of hers going through that. So she decided to keep the baby. given that she was only seventeen, that was a big deal.

"The pregnancy went off without a hitch, no probelms were detected and roughly around nine months later, the woman gave birth to a daughter, to me. I came out drying like all babies do, but the doctors were worried. I was discolored, it was a light blueish gray, they would have thought I was suffocating if it weren't for the fact I was screaming my head off," Grace found herslef chuckling at the story she had been told so many times before. "Well fate would have it that a nurse working at the hospital at the time was a witch, she mentioned my case to a friend of hers and he came to see me the next day. He was a full blown Brachen Demon, so he new what to look for when it came to identifying a child that had Brachen in them.

"Realizing what I was he supressed my demonic appearance. When the doctors came back in, they ran all the tests and found a normal baby with normal coloring, so they let my mother finaly hold me. She still wasn't sure what to name me, but the doctors urged her to take her time. They were still afraid I was ill, and naming a child only to loose them a day later is a painful experience.

"That night, I was back in the nursery, and the demon came back. As the story goes, mom had a bit of a flip out when she saw him. She finaly calmed down a bit when the nurse came in. It took both of them to convince her it wasn't a scam or something. The demon, Carlen, expained to my mom that Brachen's were being wiped out by the Scourge, so she was in danger if she kept me. He offered to take me away to keep both of us safe. She refused." Connor noticed the respect that resonated in Grace's voice.

"That was pretty amazing, you know? She just learned that demons and stuff were real, her daughter was part demon, and that if she stayed involved she could end up in a genocidal war. Yet she still wanted to keep me. Well, Carlen had to agreed on the condition that he would be alowd to stick around to watch after things. He also asked her to hold off naming me until he could find out who my father was. Something about wanting to be able to link me to my clan.

"Mom agreed. Told Carlen everything she knew about my father, she explained that he hadn't looked like a demon, and he was on his way. The next night he was back with a full name. My father was Allen Francis Doyle, half Brachen half human, he didn't even know about his demon half. So that makes me a quarter Brachen demon. It doesn't do much for me, hightened strenghth, endurance, and senses, plus the occasional skin discoloring. The blood is so watered down it really doesn't do much else. But back to the story.

"Mom gave me my father's last name to 'link me to my clan.' And we were released from the hospital the next day. She moved to a bigger town so that she could blend in more easily, and so no one would find it weird that the guy living with her practialy never left the houde during the day. It was a good arrangement. Mom worked during the day while Carlen looked after me, then he would go to his clan meetings and stuff at night. It was a nice little disfunctional set up. If anyone asked, we said that my dad died before I was born and that Carlen was my dad's brother, and that he suffered from a rare disease that gave him a high intolreance to the sun. People almost never asked, but if they did, that story was good enough for them. But one night, Scourge tracked us down, to escape, we made the jump into one of the many demon worlds. So we lived the next few years in and out of demon realms, which aged me faster then life on Earth would have." She looked Connor straight in the eye. He understood perfectly well how time passed differently in all the demensions. Technicaly, he was still a todler in Earth years, and this girl was no different.

"Allen of course was none the wiser that he had a daughter floating around out there. He became a teacher, met a girl, got married, settled down. Life was pretty good, untill his demonic powers manifested. His were more noticable then mine, he could fully trandform into a Brachen, the red eyes and all. He freaked, left his wife and eventually found himself in LA. By this time, Carlen decided that it would be safe to take up permentant residence here. I was old enough to understand the danger, and I was tired of running. Then one day, out of the blue, I was slammed with a pain that felt like my mind was being torn to shreds with a dozen blades. The pain was so intense I blacked out. At the same time, Allen had the similiar feeling, but instead of blacking out he saw visions of the future. I know because as soon as I passed out I was standing right next to him, only he was oblivious to my presence, like I was invisible. I hung out around him for three days before waking up in a hospital.

"Turns out that I had been in a coma for the past three days. Calen figured if my dad had unintentionaly given a part of his ability to be a reciever to me. Since the two of us only had half, the pain was inevetible. So i was stuck hoping it would never happen again. To no avail though, a week or so later the pain came again. i blacked out faster that time. Soon I was walking with my dad down the streets of LA while he was trying to find the city's newest vampire. Sounds suicidal, but this vampire was different. This new arrival had a soul, his name was Angel." Connor leaned forward in his seat as Illyria cocked her head to the side. Grace noticed they both seemed eager to hear more about there lost champion.

"Well this vision led them to save a girl from Angel's past. A Cordelia Chase. Once that was done, I thought that I would wake up again, but I didn't. I watched them form Angel Investigations, a paranormal private investigation office that fought evil one demon at a time. I watched them fight all sorts of evil. More importantly, I watched your father teach mine what it meant to be a hero.

"But the good days were not meant to last. The Scourge came to LA. Angel and Doyle found a family of peaceful demons hiding from the genocidal maniacs. In the ensuing fight, Doyle took to heart Angel's lesson on what a hero was. He finaly let Cordelia know how he felt about her, planted a kiss on her, and then sacrificed himself to save all of them." Connor watched her with concern on his face. He heard how her voice had hitched slighlty when she told them about her father's sacrifice. Now they had two things in common, demon world childhoods, and loosing their fathers in the fight for the greater good.

"Well, I should have woken up then. The power of the revieving the visions should have fallen to me. But I didn't wake up. However, after his death, Cordelia had a vision. Turns out he gave her the ability through that kiss. I guess he wanted to make sure Angel would still be able to fight the good fight. So I was still stuck in comatose until she died. It sucked knowing that I couldn't get my life back until a woman I had come to respect died. So I was willing to wait until she had lived out what I hoped would be a long life.

"I stayed and watched Angel Investigations grow. I watched allies come and go. Watched them travel into different worlds. I watched two vampires have a child, and I watched as the child was stolen away." She locked eyes for this statement. The seep brown held the ice blue for a few moments before Grace continued. "I watched as the son returned. I watched as Cordelia gave birth Jasmine. Then, for the first time in years, I had someone to talk to. With Cordelia in her coma, her spirit was free to roam as mine was. She could see me, hear me, talk to me. We were invisible together.

"We watched as Jasmine was conquered. We watched you in your darkest hour. We watched as Angel allied himself with his enemies to save you, to give you a life where you wouldn't have to fight the darkness.

"Finaly Cordelia couldn't take it anymore, she wanted to step in and help Angel, to guide him. She knew she was dying, and she wanted Angel to see what was coming. She considered just letting herself die so I could wake up, but there was no garuntee I'd be able to get to LA fast enough to be of any help. So we managed to apeal to the powers that be and her spirit became visible for the twenty four hours before she died. She almost didn't give Angel the visions, she felt bad just leaving my spirit floating around out there. She knew she had to though, and right before her time was up she kissed Angel and passed Doyle's gift into him. It was in that moment that Angel had his first and only vision, he saw the course of what was to come play out before his eyes. Then she died.

"What came next moved fast. Fred died and in her body Ilyria was born. Angel pretended to allie himself with the Circle of the Black Thorn. Everyone's lives were torn apart. Then the plans were revealed and the Final Battle began. You two know how that goes. Illyria over there made trophies out of the soines of several demons before comforting Wesley as he died and completing his job. You," she pointed to Connor, " went and helped you dad while he was fighting in the Wolfram & Hart building. He told you to leave and you did what he asked. He then went to the alley and found that Illyria, Spike, and Gunn were that only ones left. Lorne physicaly survived, but inside, he was near dead and he didn't come."

Grace now turned to Illyria, "I was hoping you could tell me what happened next. I remember watching the battle begin. I saw that Gunn was the first to die, though it took five demons to finaly bring him down. I saw Angel fighting a dragon and demons at the same time. I saw the Dragon breathe fire as a demon's axe found his neck. Then I came to in the hospital. I knew that meant Angel was dead, but I didn't know how the battle ended."

Illyria nodded to confirm what Grace had said about the battle was accurate. "Angle died fighting the dragon. When he perished, my Spike attacked the dragon in a frenzy. He ended the dragon for Angel, but there were too many demons, five with a mixture of troll and giant's blood in them got the better of him. The forces fell before me though. I had lost too much that night. I wanted the wolf, ram, and hart to to suffer ten score the pain I had felt. I had grown to enjoy them all to a degree, my Spike, Wesley, Angel, Gunn and even the cowardly green one. I wanted violence until my enemy had suffered for ever making me feel pain.

"We fought until daybreak when the army was forced away. By then this shell had been close to broken. I went to a place where Fred had always felt safe. I had seen it in her memories, it was called a hotel. I remained in a room covered in numbers until the shell was healed. Then I wandered the streets everynight looking for remnants, but they were gone." Illyria looked to Grace, "Then I found you and you led me to the seed of Angel."

"So you want me to believe that our dads were war buddies and that you have come half way across the world to pick up where the old man you never met left off?" Connor asked, voice full of speculation.

Grace glared at him, "Yes."

"The battle was a month ago, you said you woke up before it was even finished. What took you so long to get here then?"

"Paperwork. I had to sort a few things out at the hospital, then I had to apply for a passport so I could actually get over here. I would have come sooner if I could, but Carlen was the one who did the spells and he uped vanished with my mom when i wnet comatose. The payments to the hospital were always made from an unlisted post box in Russia, and I was pretty sure that Carlen wasn't anywhere that cold."

Connor looked at his odd companions. He didn't want people thowing away their lives to help him. But Illyria seemed to have dedicated her life to hurting the Senior Partners. It seemed that Grace was tired of sitting on the sidelines and if he turned her away she would take matters in to her own hands and get herslef killed anyway. And if he turned her away, he would have no way of knowing where he was needed.

Grace watched Connor's face intently, she knew he was debating if he should let her fight with him. After a while she finaly asked, "So can I stay?"

"Fine."

"Good enough for me. Now, I'm off to find a place to stay and pick up a morning paper. I'll be back in a few hours boss." With that she scooped up her bag and walked out the door.

"Boss?" Connor asked watching her leave. When he saw Illyria turn to follow Grace he asked, "So, are you in?"

Illyria faced him, "I will help you fight. I think it might be enjoyable. I wich to help her find residence, she intrigues me." Illyria cought up with Grace in the blink of an eye and Connor watched the leather clad demon and the seemingly normal quarter demon walk off into what remained of the night.

"Connor! I need your help out here!" a voice yelled a few hours later. Connor jolted on the couch in the second office, he could have sworn he had locked the door after the two had had left. He rushed into the front room to find Illyria fuming and pacing the room, looking very lethal.

"Now Illyria, just calm down. We can't do anything rash, especially today, they'd be expecting it," Grace said soothingly while eyeing the other woman warily. Connor understood why he was needed instantly, it would take both of them to have any hope of subdueing Illyria if she turned violent. "Illyria, listen to common sense," Grace pleaded, "I know you want to hurt them, but if you go there today you'll be playing into their plans. They don't know who survived that night, and they're trying to trick the survivors into attacking today. I've seen it, security is strong." Illyria glowered darkly at Grace's reasoning.

"Whats happening that set her off like that?" Connor asked.

"This," Grace hissed, handing the newspaper that was in her hand over to Connor. He felt his heart skip a beat when he read the front page headline:

Wolfram & Hart Rebuilds

He read the rest of the article, which marveled at how fast the law firm rebuilt after tragical loosing its headquarters after an explosion tore it apart a month earlier.

"They're back," he said hollowly, "so they're sacrifice was for nothing."

"Thats not true, it slowed them down and took out some of their best lieutenants. It gave us time to gather." Grace sighed, she wondered if Connor was even listening. "If you go there today, you will die."

His head shot up at that. "What?"

"I saw that in my ride here. You went guns blazing and they brought you down before the arrow could leave the shaft."

Connor looked away. She was right, but he didn't want to admit it. He had been planning to go in there, armed to he teeth and take down as many of the Senior Partners' people he could. It was a trap though.

"What do you suggest we do about it then?" He asked, looking up and seeing her stare blankly at nothing. "Ummm..."

"She's having a vision. She did this last night," Illyria explained.

With a gasp Grace regained awareness of her surroundings.

"I'm afraid Wolfram & Hart is being wait listed, there something more pressing we have to take care of tonight, and we need to find the place before sundown."

Both women looked at Connor. For a momenrt he was undecided, should he charge into what they were pretty sure was a trap and rake up a body count, or follow Grace's visions?

"Fine, what did you see?"

**AN: Thats all for now. Upcoming chapters will introduce more characters, and there will definitly be a chapter on who is on the roster for the big bads. Trying to use as many tie ins as possible, so there are definatly going to be characters returning from the dead on both sides. Have a favorite buffyverse character that you want to see, let me know and I'll see waht i can do, the story is pretty open right now. -tra-**


	4. reinforcements?

**AN: I know its been a while, but there was a bit of writers block. I really had to sit down and plan out where I wanted to take this story, which meant doing further look ups on character's I'm not very familiar with. Also, I'm still trying to hammer out the main players for the big bads, which I may have figured out. **

**And remember, I am not the one they call joss whedon, my writers block proves that, so i don't own anything out of the buffyverse.**

reinforcements?

Connor winced and tried to pull away as Grace tried to clean the jagged wound along his back.

"Suck it up. Jeez, are you sure that you are the psychotic love child of two of the world's most feared and powerful vampires?" Grace muttered, pouring more hydrogen peroxide into the torn flesh and watched with a morbid fascination as it bubbled black.

"Getting hurt in a fight is one thing, you don't have time to think about the pain," Connor shot back, "I'm more aware of it when I'm sitting here and doing nothing beside waiting for you to pur that stuff on me. Why do you even have to do it? I'll heal up in a few hours."

"Its hydrogen peroxide you wuss. And I know you can patch up quick enough, its just a matter of how well your body can fight an infection. That thing was drooling some sort of slime when it bit you, God knows what was that stuff was."

Connor rolled his eyes and pulled away as soon as he felt Grace complete bandaging his back. "On that note," he began as he buttoned up his shirt, "What the hell was that thing that bit me? I don't remember seeing anything like that before, and it didn't help that we didn't know how to kill the things. Illyria, do you have any idea?"

Illyria turned her gaze to Connor, "The species have changed since I last ruled this plane. That was a species that I had never been bothered by before."

"Great" Connor missed before storming of to the back room and collapsing on its worn down couch.

The previous night hadn't gone well. They crashed a rather sordid and elaborate bachelor party which Grace had seen being attcked in her vision. The party had rented out a whole night club, and was planning to be closed door from sundown to sunrise. Connor had slipped in through the kitchens and blended in as a guess. Grace and Illyria had come in through the frint with all the weapons, claiming that they were the night's entertainment. As soon as the doors were locked, the club's owner let in the demons who had paid double then that of the party so they could have a feeding frenzy. The demons had killed three before being chased off. Connor and Grace had barely mangaed to take down two each. Illyria walked away practically unscathed, with four demons dead due to her efforts.

"So we got to brush up on demon studies. No big deal," Grace said, trying to console Connor while cleaning up the medical supplies. "I'm sure between our world jumping and Illyria's past we know a lot, we just got to combine that knowledge into a bock or something for reference."

"Holtz never taught me about demons, he focused mostly on vampire slayinfgwhile raising me. And we don't have time to write a book, Grace," Connor vented while still lying on his stomach in the room over. "The Senior Partner's have their headquarters back. Who know's what type of evil they are using to recreate the Circle of the Black Thorn. We need to stop their plans before they start, or hell will most probably break loose in this city as they try to put it under their control again."

"His argument is reasonable," Illyria said from her corner.

"Yeah, but we can't fight what we can't kill. We need someone who knows more about demons then we do combined, and I'm pretty sure there aren't many with that kind of knowledge floating around."

"Wesley had it," Illyria shot back.

The room went very silent. The three had avoided discusing any of the fallen heroes for the past day while they had been preparing for the night club. They now avoided eye contact with each other.

"We need to find a way to function without them," Grace said softly.

"There were others like Wesley," Illyria suggested.

Grace smirked as she heard Connor give a faint chuckle from the next room over. "I don't know how the Watcher's Council would react to that. Yeah, we need to borrow a watcher so we can fight evil; and oh yeah he's the equivilent of a living vamp, she's a demon god king, and I'm part demon myself."

Illyria glowered and the office fell into silence once again.

"Spike was brought back when he was suposed to be dead. Fred remembers it," Illyria suggested a few moments later.

Connor eased his way back into the front room, he wanted to hear the rest of this convorsation play out.

"That might work," Grace thought out loud. "There are a couple places we could check. Your dad managed to undo time once so he wouldn't become human by accident. Though that would involve goign to a higher power, and the longer we lay low the better. But we could research, see if there are any other methods before we go to a higher up." Grace looked at Connor.

"It could work, but we need to lay low. Think you can find the resources you need?"

"I reckon I can recall some of the contacts my dad went to while I was comatose."

"Good, you go gather whatever you think you'll need. I'll try to work on our P.I. front bby making this place actually look like an office. Illyria, can you go the the Hyperion and use Fred's memories to gather up anything Grace might find useful?" Once getting a confirmation from each woman Connor continued, "Good. Its almost seven now, meet back here at noon and we'll see what we have from there."

As they were leaving he heard Grace instructing Illyria to use her human appearance so they wouldn't attract notice on the way to the hotel. He then heard Illyria saying somehting along the lines of people should know her status and gice her the respect she deserved. Connor felt a faint smile on his face as he began to move a desk to Illyria's corner so she would have the appearance of a secretary. They may be an odd group, but they did work well together, and that may just give them the edge they needed in the fight to come.

At noon Grace was returning to the office, gearing up to give connor the somewhat diturbing news she had discovered while trying to find any information pertaining to the Oracles or bringing back the dead. She was to absorbed in her thoughts to notice the accupunturist come out of his office until he struck up convorsation with her.

"So do you know if your boyfriend is cheating on you yet?"

Grace jumped and stared blankly at the man. "Excuse me?"

"Your boyfriend, the one that he," the older man gestured to Connor's office, "was following around. Did he find out if he was seeing anyone else?"

"Oh, him, yeah," Grace stuttered, remebering her cover story from two nights ago, "he was. I dumped his sorry as soon as I could. Guess Connor felt bad though, since I quit my job so I wouldn't have to work with the bastard anymore, so he hired me on as a secretary."

"Do I'll be seeing a lot of you then," the man beemed happily, "You will just have to tell me as soon as your ready to start dating again, my son would be perfect for you."

"Um, yeah, sure, but listen I really got to get going." Without giving the man a chance to stop her Grace spedof for Angel Investigations.

As she entered the office she nearly collided with Illyria and Connor who were standing by the door, obviously listening ot her conversation outside.

"How much did you hear?"

"All," Illyria answered simply before wandering off behind the desk in her corner. Seeing the desk made Grace look around. In the short amount of time she had been gone Connor had actually made the space look like an office. There was a desk which she assumed was hers due to the many books stacked upon it to the left of the door. Against the far wall was a bookcase loaded with more books and a long table with a coffee pot, microwave and assortment of junk food. And then there was the desk in Ilyria's corner which faced her own. Grace was slighlty surprised by the odd image that Illyria created when she was sitting behind the bare desk in her demonic form.

"You really made this place look like a real office," Grace complimented connor, "Where'd you get the extra desk from?

"I didn't," Connor explained, "Its from my room in the back. I wasn't doing anything with it back there so I brought it out front for Illyria. Figured she wouldn't have much use for it, so I can still keep things in it, but it will give her somewhere to sit. All thats left in the back is my pullout couch, a couple a milk crate shelves and the weapons."

"So in other words your living there."

"I don't see anything wrong with that."

"I will just avoid the argument of why you aren't living at the hotel like me and Illyria for another time. I got big news.."

"Your living at the hotel?" Connor cut her off.

"Yeah, I can't exactly pay to live anywhere at the moment, but we'll save this for a later time," Grace rolled her eyes. "Turns out we're not the only one's interested in bringing back some of the dearly departed. More than one of my sources this morning told me I wasn't the first one to come in recently asking about resurection spells. Which in turn makes the current market very small."

"The Senior Partners," Illyria shot out.

"Well, actually one of there proxies on this plane. They all discribed him as an intimidating fellow in a suit, dark hair, creepy eyes. Sounds like a lot of people I've seen so I don't know who it is."

"Marcus Hamilton," Illyria suggested, bitterness full flavoring her suggestion.

"Maybe, or Lindsey McDonald," Grace added, "they both seem to fit the given description."

"Does it matter who it is?" Connor asked. "All it means is they are trying to do the same thing as us, bring back key players."

"But they could so that through contracts, why take all the available books?"

A look of relization dawned on Connor's face, "So no one else can."

Grace blinked in shock, "Shit. Fuck. Stupid, bloody bastards," she ranted, her choice of words becoming more colorful with each breath.

Connor looked over and saw anger on her face. But for the briefest moment he thought he saw something else in her eyes, pain. "We'll just have to go through these, see if we can find anything. If not, we risk detection and go to the Oracles."

Grace stopped her tirade and glared at the number of books on her desk, "Great, homework."

"Are you sure I should be the one handling this?" the blonde woman asked her two companions as they got into a taxi cab outside of LAX. "I'm not sure I can handle talking to Angel and Spike at the same time about this."

"I'm not sure what you expect me to say, since we're already here," Giles said as he looked at the Los Angeles skyline basking in the bright afternoon sunilght, being careful to avoid eye contact with Buffy. "But you might as well be the one to handle it after sitting on two different planes and crossing half the globe. The reports are all showing that there has been such an influx of evil activity here that the Watchers Council believes that a hell mouth may have been torn open in the vacinity. Since Angel may now be working with those responsible you will have to confront him and maybe talk some sense into him so that he'll close it."

"Spike will probably help you out," Dawn chimed in, "since I'm pretty sure he's still touchy on the whole Hell Mouth thing."

Buffy roled her eyes. and glared out the window of the packed cab. She still wasn't sure how she had been coerced into coming to Los Angeles, and the fact that she had allowed her sister to come proved that she wasn't using her best judgement at the moment. They had been getting reports of an increase in demonic and vampiric presences in the city for the past month, right aftr the Wolfram and Hart building had been totalled. She had agreed to come and get the details out of Angel and see if she could get him to help reseal it. She felt a slight knot form in her throat when she thought about Angel. They had been trying to find him since the building had collapsed and there were no signs of him anywhere. The closest hunch they had was from Willow when she tried to scry for him. All she had gotten was a weak "ripple" from a office building on the other side of the city from Wolfram and Hart. But they had no proof that it was actually him.

It was still early in the afternoon when they pulled up in front on the building. Buffy sighed as the three of them unloaded out of the car. She doubted whether Angel would actually be around here in the middle of the day when there were no doubt a dozen other safe places for a vampire to hide from the mid-day sun.

As the taxi pulled away Dawn scanned the list of offices located in the three story building. "Here it is," she pointed, "Angel Investigations, third floor."

While climbing the stairs, the knot moved from Buffy's throat into her stomach. She was a little dismayed that a shut blind hid what was on the other side of the door. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door quickly and stepped inside. What she saw left her suprised. The office had two desks, and at each of them sat a brown haired woman paging through thick books. The one was mousish looking with long curling hair and the other one appeared younger and had a shorter and choppier hair style. Next to a bookcase sat a man appeared to be around the same age as the younger girl and Dawn. He was sitting on the floor with a book in his lap and he was staring at the her with suprise.

Connor stared up in suprise. He hadn't even heard the woman or her two companions approaching until they were opening the door. He glanced at Illyria and was thnakful they had decided that she should stay in Fred's form while in the office incase someone walked in with a case. She seemed more interested in the three newcomers then suprised by their pressence. And a quick look at Grace confirmed that she didnot recognize them either.

He stood up quickly and put the book back on the shelf. "Umm, hi," he held out a hand and approached the blonde in the center, as she appeared to be the leader," Welcome to Angel Investigations, how can we help you."

He quirked his eyebrow as the blond ignored his offered hand to look at the man in some sort of professor suit stnadinung next to her. He looked just as startled as she did and took over the convorsation.

"I'm afraid there might be a bit of confusion," the man explained. Connor noticed the accent, British he guessed. "You see, we're looking for an associate of ours. You wouldn't happen to know Angel by any chance?"

Connor stiffened and sensed both Grace and Illyria sit up more at their desks. They had called Angel an associate, did thast make them from Wolferman & Hart? He doubted it a little, as they didn't recognize Fred/Illyria. So who were they?

While all this was being thought out by Connor, Buffy was trying to figure out the man in front of her. He obviously knew Angel, but he didn't trust them. She still couldn't get over how familiar he looked, but she didn't know why.

Before either could find anything to say, their thoughts were interupted by Grace. "Who are you and what do you want with Angel?" Grace internally cursed herself, but she didn't see the point in beating around the bush.

"We were friends when he was back in Sunnydale, can't say much else," Buffy shrugged, hoping this would be an answer they would accept.

"Buffy," Grace whispered, "Yeah I remember now. Nearly forgot." Buffy's intrest was now peaked in the Irish girl as much as the male in front of her. Grace tunred to Connor, "Its safe. He used to fight with them before he came to LA."

Connor looked into Buffy's eyes at hearing this. He had heard that his dad had been with a slayer, but it was startling to see her standing before him eye contact, Connor looked to the floor and felt the truth leave his lips before he even realized it, "Angel's dead."

The visitors looked at each other anxiously. "Are his ashes located in this residence?" Giles asked.

"No."

"If you could excuse us for a minute then," he said weakly, pulling the other two into the hall with him.

Once in the hall the debate began.

"What does he mean Angel's dead?" Buffy asked, "Willow scryed him here."

"Well not really," Dawn corrected.

"Maybe a very strong personal effect of his is located here. We'll have to ask. Did you meet that short haired girl last time you were here?," Giles asked.

Buffy shook her head. "No, there was an Irish guy, and Cordi. No one else worked for Angel."

While slayer and her companions debated what to do in the hall, a similiar debate was waging in the office.

"Connor," Grace scolded, "you could have told her more then just he's dead. After all, she's a slayer, they're safe."

"What was I supposed to tell her? I'm his love child? I guy you used to sleep with died a horrible death at the hands of evil? You just walked into a room full of demons, have fun?"

"I don't know what, but it could have been handled better."

Their conversation was cut off as the other three reentered.

"It seems we started off improperly. Allowe me to introduce myself. I'm Rupert Giles, a watcher. This is Buffy Summers, a slayer, and her sister, Dawn Summers."

"Guess we should introduce ourselves as well then," Grace smiled, "Names Grace Doyle. I think you met my dad last time you were here," she explained to Buffy. Buffy nodded in recognition.

Illyria stepped forward, still in Fred's appearance and introduced herself as Illyria Burkle. Both Connor and Grace were relieved when the Watcher did not recognize the god-king's name.

Finaly all eyes were on Connor. He sighed and looked to the floor. "I'm Connor. I really don't know what my last name is. I was kinda adopted, so the records say I'm Connor Reilly. Before that I was raised by a vampire hunter called Holtz, and for awhile I used that as my surname. But at the begining, I had my father's name as my last name. Now that I look back thats the one I like best." He looked into Buffy's eyes, "My name, the one I answer to anyway, is Connor Angel."

Buffy's eyes grew wide. It was impossible for a vampire to have a child, and she would have known if Angel had a son, esspecially a son that was so old. He would have told her, wouldn't he?

"By son, I assume that means Angel is you sire?" Giles asked, trying to make sense of the new information.

"No," Connor explained slowly, "It means that I was concieved after my father slept with my mother. I was born like any human child." Connor looked to his partners, they both nodded that they would let him explain everything. "It's a bit of a long story, you might want to sit down."

Grace gave her seat to Giles and perched on her desk along side Dawn. Illyria remained in her spot. Buffy chose to stand and leane against a wall.

Connor sat back down next to the bookcase and began the story that had been peiced together two nights ago. "It all started when a vampire with a soul came to Los Angeles...."


	5. reawaken the beast

**AN: This chapter is dedicated to those who have supplied me with input and encouragement for the past few chapters. So a special thanks goes to: David Fishwick, manx160, TheSwannsSparrow, and all the anon reviewers. Also, I have a pole on which good guys my readers want to make a reappearance, so go check that out. And now, on with the show. And PS, I don't own the buffyverse, only this plot and any oc's that are thrown in.**

reawakening the beast

Grace sighed in frustration as she paged through another thick tome which had arrived in the mail that morning. It had been two weeks since the "Visit of the Slayer" as she called it in her head. Buffy, Giles, and Dawn had decided to trust the new Angel Investigations to keep an eye on the hell mouth that was somewhere in LA and not alert the Watcher's Council to their presence. They also agreed to help the team by sending some older editions of what Connor had nicknamed the Demon Dictionaries. They had proven useful, since the team now spent every night on the street hunting demons and vampires. The final installment was a rare copy of The Vampire and was going to be hand delivered by Dawn in two days time. The books were given to the team the condition that they would not resurrect any of the previous generation of Angel Investigations.

At first they were wary to accept but when Buffy had laid out what could await a reawakened being, they had to agree. They did no want to risk sending any of the team members to Hell by pulling them out of Heaven. And in the case of Spike and Angel, there was no guarantee that the soul would come back with the body. If this were to happen, they would accidently release Angelus and Spike the Bloody back into an unsuspecting world. If they ever did that Buffy had sworn that she would personally slay every one of them without regret. After seeing the logic the team had accepted the terms, though they felt the threat was not necessary.

Finally finding the page she was looking for, Grace shouted, "Found it!"

"About time!" Connor yelled back, coming out of the back room. He paused and looked around the room, "Where's Illyria?"

"She went to get me a book from the hotel when I thought this one was going to be a flop."

"You guys are still staying at a hotel? How can you afford that? It's not like we're actually making money here," Connor asked with a look of puzzlement on his face.

"We're not paying. The Hyperion is pretty free and Illyria and I are careful that no one sees us coming or leaving," she stated simply, failing to see his shocked face by keeping herself immersed in the book.

"Thats where you two have been staying?"

"Yeah. I know the place pretty well, being all ghosty and stuff. And Illyria has been staying there since the last battle. She saw of Fred's memories of the place." She looked up at Connor, "You OK?" she asked.

He nodded numbly, not sure of what to think of his two closest friends staying in his father's previous home. He would just have to think that out later.

At that moment llyria came into the office in Fred's form, the only way she walked in public during the day. She hanged back to her demonic form the moment the door slammed shut behind her. She threw the book on Grace's desk before huffing over to her corner.

"Illyria?" Grace asked cautiously.

"That human scum accosted me and tried to get me to initiate a courting ritual with his spawn."

"What?" Connor asked as Grace broke out in laughter.

"The guy in the next office over tried to get Illyria to date his son," Grace giggled, "he's been trying to get me to do it since my first night here."

"Really?" Connor asked in disbelief, trying to hide a grin from Illyria.

"Yeah, he-" before she could finish Grace's eyes misted over and she nearly fell out of her chair. Connor rushed over and steadied her.

When her eyes cleared Grace curse under her breath, "Shit."

"Grace?" Connor asked as Illyria made her way across the room. Grace's visions had been latent in the past two weeks, and they were both eager to hear what the Powers that Be had sent to her.

"Its Lorne, the Senior Partners are going to track him down and kill him. He's going to be up in some bar in Canada."

"Lorne?" a soft voice asked. Grace and Connor's heads shot around to look at Illyria. Surely Illyria couldn't have used that sweet sounding voice. But if not her, then who?

"What?" the demon asked defensively.

"Nothing," Grace answered for both of them. "One of us has to go warn Lorne."

"Too dangerous, we should all go," Connor countered.

"What of the demon nest we were to destroy tonight?" asked Illyria, "And the promise to the slayer that we would be the guardians of the city?"

Connor sighed. "Fine only one of us will get Lorne, the other two will knock out the nest and play 'guardian,'" he muttered. "Now, which one of us is going?"

"It should me," Grace volunteered. "Wolfram & Hart doesn't know about me, so I'll be able to slip by them unnoticed."

"Shouldn't it be one that Lorne knows?" Connor asked, looking at Illyria.

"No," Illyria answered, "He has been avoiding us. If he sees one he recognizes, he may flee."

"So," Grace said, "Looks like I' going to Canada."

After showing them the chapter that dealt with how to kill their current demon problem, Grace left to go pack. She purchased a plane ticket that would get her to her destination by nightfall. As she settled on the plane a second vision overtook her. In this one, there were three shadowed figures digging a jar out of the dirt. The place looked like an overgrown grave yard. Before she could get more details, the vision was over. 'Dammit' she thought.

Illyria and Connor were prepared to destroy the demon nest and were headed out the door when the office's phone rang. Connor ran to answer as Illyria watched.

"Hello?" Connor asked, fearing to hear Grace say she was too late.

"Just landed," he heard her voice come over the line. He also heard a lot of background noise.

"Where are you calling from?"

"Airport pay phone, so I got to keep it short and simple," came the answer.

"I understand." Connor watched Illyria tilt her head in confusion. "Grace" he mouthed to her, helping that alleviated some confusion.

"I need you guys to keep an eye on the local graveyards, I had another vision. Something was getting dug up and the place had a grave like feel to it."

"We can do that," Connor promised.

"Good, got to go." And with that she hung up.

"Did she find him?" Illyria asked.

"No, she just got there. But she told me we should be on the lookout for graverobbers."

Illyria merely nodded as they walked out.

The fight was a quick one, they took the demons by surprise. One nearly blinded Connor with its venom, only to have his neck broken by llyria. When they were done, they acted on Grace's vision and wandered through a few different graveyards. They found a few Goth teenagers wandering through, and one couple making out behind a rather large tombstone. Other then that, the saw nothing. During this time, Illyria shared stories of Angel with Connor, something he had wanted to hear for a long time. Once they had completed their search of the nearby cemeteries, they headed to a 24 hour diner for a late dinner.

Grace wandered into a bar shortly after her conversation with Connor. The place was having a costume party and a karaoke contest. She quickly let her skin take on its brachen coloring, so that she would blend a little better. She looked around, but didn't see Lorne in the bright colored crowd. Knowing only one way to definitely get her message to him, she went to the bar, figuring she should have alcohol in her system before she tried it.

"Sea breeze," she ordered from the bartender.

He looked to the other bartender. "Hey Larry, its another sea breeze." Larry laughed and continued to poor a beer."Sorry," the man said, "he never had a sea breeze ordered before tonight and the guy almost came behind the bar to make it."

"Other guy?" Grace asked.

"Yeah, he some sort of green devil in a red suit."

"Christmas Devil," Larry piped in.

"Thanks," Grace said as she paid for her drink, wishing she could leave the guy a bigger tip. She drank her drink quickly and walked up to the karaoke stage before her nerves came back. She didn't feel like seeking Lorne out, so now that she knew he was in the bar, all she had to do was make him see why she came here. A little tune should do the trick.

After fumbling her way through some Queen song, she made her way off the stage. She was thinking about getting herself another sea breeze when someone grabbed her arm. She turned and found herself staring into the red eyes of Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan.

"Can we talk?" he asked, but Grace knew it wasn't a question. She figured he would want answers from her before he trusted her. She followed him out the back door into the alley.

"You got my message?" she asked when the door closed behind them.

"Loud and clear. Someone wants me dead. What I want to know is who sent you." Grace was taken aback. The kind voice Lorne used to use was all but gone. She felt sadness well up in her, she may have come in time to save his life, but his hope seemed all but dead.

"The PTB," she said, using Cordi's nickname for the Powers, hoping that would help him trust her.

"Alright, how come I got the vibe that you know me? We've never met."

"Wolfram & Hart edited your memories. There are some people they made you forget. I'm not one of them though, but I'm working with them. My dad was the one who gave Cordi the power of the visions. Now I have them and I came here to save your hide. The rest is a long story that is pointless unless you intend to stick around."

Lorne shook his head, "Thanks for the offer kid, but I'm out of the hero business."

"Good to hear," a voice said from behind. The two turned. Standing before them was Lindsey Macdonald, aiming a gun at Lorne's chest. "You were always a crappy hero," he said bitterly, "Hello Lorne."

Back in LA, Illyria was now asking Connor questions about the human world, something she hadn't done since Wesley's death. He was trying to ignore the looks people were giving them. Apparently they thought Illyria's Fred form looked like a cougar trying to seduce a young college boy. She was fascinated by the miniature juke box attached to the booths more than him, so he thought the whispers were unnecessary.

"You want to hear a song?" he offered. At this Illyria began to skim over all of the songs in the player.

"I remember this one," she said in a voice that was softer then the one Illyria used when masquerading as Fred. "My dad used to play it all the time to drive my mom up a wall," and she gave a happy chuckle.

"Illyria?" Connor asked, trying not to panic at this sudden change in her personality.

She looked at him with her big brown eyes fully startled. "Connor?" she gasped before having a convulsion and passing out.

"Illyria!" he shouted, jumping over the table to get to her. She was unconscious in his arms. He quickly got up, carrying her through the door before someone called a hospital. He ran her back to the office and placed her on his couch in the backroom. She was breathing regularly, so he chanced leaving her side for a few moments to grab some books. He sat by her side the rest of the night, reading through the books trying to find an answer to what was wrong with her. Every so often, she would twitch or shift as though she was merely dreaming. But she remained unresponsive to the world around her.

"Lindsey?" Lorne asked in disbelief. "I shot you."

"And here I stand to return the favor."

Lorne shifted himself to keep Grace behind him and away from Lindsey's bullet. But this only peaked Lindsey's interest in her even more. "So there's a Doyle the younger? Well I'll just have to kill both of you then. This should be fun."

Before he could fire the bullet, Grace pulled a dagger out of her sleeve and let it loose at the man. It hit the arm with the gun as she grabbed Lorne and started to run. They had only gone a few steps when a blast sounded from behind them and a pain seared Grace's shoulder. She gasped and stumbled considering it was a miracle that she was still on her feet. Before she could process what was happening, a shrill, almost defening note filled the air, it was followed by a blur she assumed was Lorne charging at Lindsey and head butting the man. Lindsey crumpled to the ground, gun clattering away from his form.

Lorne scooped up the gun and looked at Grace, "Hows your aim?"

"Decent," she gasped, trying not to move the shoulder that had been struck by the bullet. He tossed the gun and she caught it on instinct.

"Come on," he said, leading her down the alley. After walking a block Grace was starting to feel light headed. She was about to ask how much farther they had to go when he stopped and opened to door to an old red car. She collapsed on the back seat as Lorne got behind the wheel.

"Where we going?" she asked.

"I'm getting you back to LA."

"I thought you were out of the hero business."

Lorne turned to face her as he started the car. "I never said I was getting back in. Though, I'm thinking about it, as it seems the blood on my hands has been cancelled out. And besides, I couldn't leave you back there."

She didn't push the subject any further and they rode in silence until Lorne asked an hour later, "How you holding up sweet cheeks?"  
"I'll be fine. I've got a little demon in me, so I'm already starting to heal up."

"That good to hear," he said. He flipped on the radio and drove into the night, headed back to the one city he never thought he would return to.

Meanwhile, in the newly constructed Wolfram & Hart, two women awaited an elevator. The older one held a jar full of ashes.

"I still don't see why they brought you back up here for this," Eve said bitterly to the older woman.

Lilah shot an insincere smile and responded as she stepped into the elevator, "Because they wanted someone with a 'background' with this client to help reawaken him."

"Can't you at least tell me who's in there?" she asked, gesturing to the jar.

"You'll find out soon enough," she smirked as the doors closed. She pressed a series of buttons, which led her to the white room. She was surprised by the large stone table in the center, but walked over to it regardless, assuming the Senior Partners had their reasons for wanting it there. As soon as she was by the table's side, a young girl appeared at her side.

"Pour the ashes out on the table," she instructed.

Lilah did as she was told, pouring the ashes out along the length of the table. She looked to the girl for further instructions, and found an ancient dagger being handed to her.

"Take this, you'll need it to give the blood. Now, say and do exactly what I tell you..." the girl began.

A few minutes later, the elevator doors reopened and Eve stepped forward to see who would be stepping out. When saw the dark haired man's face she took a step back, looking at Lila with distrust. "Why is he back?" she shot nastily, "He's the reason they had to rebuild, he can't be trusted."

"You cannot be trusted either it seems, and for that its been decided that I once again will be serving as the Liaison. You on the other hand are just a snack." Terror flew into Eve's eyes as the man grabbed her and bit into her neck. She was dead within minutes.

"So are you ready to go to your first meeting?" Lilah asked calmly.

The man turned, "But there is so much I want to do," he hissed.

"Yes," Lilah said smoothly, ignoring the threat in his voice, "but imagine how much more you can do when you are inducted as the leader of the Circle of the Black Thorn, Angelus."

With all the new possibilities forming in his head, Angelus shot a wicked smile, "Yes, I think I like that idea much better."

**AN: Thats all for now folks. And I apologize now that this will probably the last chapter for a while. I will add as soon as possible. Please read and review to let me know what you guys think.**


	6. ashes to ashes

AN: Hehe, so yeah its been a while. Check out a witty disclaimer from another chapter, I don't feel like coming up with one at the moment.

preparations

Connor woke late the next morning sitting by Illyria's side. He had maintained his post, watching over her and attempting to find something in the demon dictionaries about what could be wrong with her. The problem was, Illyria didn't seem to be in any of the books. He had known that she was like nothing he had ever met before, but he hadn't thought that she was unique to the point of not being in their reference collection. He had fallen asleep around four in the morning when he had grown frustrated with the books. At that time Illyria hadn't moved an inch, and it seemed that she still hadn't since he fell asleep. The small alarm clock he kept in the room told him that it was almost half past eleven. He sighed and got up to rummage through the coffee station for some form of food.

As he entered the office he couldn't help but look at the phone. He wondered if he had missed Grace's call. He would have hoped the incessant ringing would have woken him. She would have just continuously called until he had picked up_. If she is alive to call_. He pushed this doubt from his mind. He didn't like it when his doubt voiced itself in his head, it always managed to sound like Angelus. For some reason though, he never associated the hissing voice with Angel.

He found a stray candy bar underneath some rarely used mugs. While he ate he made his way back to the room to see if Illyria's condition had changed. He was promising himself that if her condition hadn't changed by one he was going to take her to a hospital. He didn't care if she had her demon complexion, the possibility of help far outweighed the risks of getting discovered by Wolfram & Hart. As he was promising himself this, the phone finally rang.

He raced over to it, "Hello?" He felt the dread building up. He had no idea what the news could be and he hated it.

"Connor, you really should say Angel Investigations or something when you answer the phone, I could have been a customer," Grace's familiar accent flooded from the other end. She sounded tired, but not defeated.

"We don't have customers, you're one of the only ones who know this number. What happened last night? Did you find him? Did he..." Connor stopped. He wasn't sure how to ask the last question. He didn't know what he wanted to know, was the Host coming to help them? Was he alive? Did he believe you? He had never gotten to know the green creature, but he knew Lorne would be able to provide support and insight on the inner workings of Wolfram & Hart.

"Yeah, I found him. He's with me now, and he's gonna give me a ride back to L.A. I got shot while we were talking, Lorne's patching me up, so don't worry about that. But Connor," he heard the dread fill her voice, "I may have hit a snag up here. The guy who shot me, it was one of Wolfram & Hart's goons. Lindsey MacDough."

"MacDonald," a voice in the background corrected Grace, "Let me have it sweet cheeks, I'll explain. Connor is it?" the new voice became louder.

Connor nodded before remembering Lorne wouldn't see. "Yeah?" It was odd talking to someone again, when they thought it was the first time. It was an odd sensation, and he made a mental note to try and find a spell that would give Lorne back his original memories.

"Hey, this is Lorne. You don't have to worry about Gracie, I've already cleaned her up and she assures me she is a fast healer. If we drive nonstop, we'll hit L.A. by tomorrow night sometime. Listen, I want a full story of what you're playing at with opening Angel Investigations again. I feel protective of that name, but I might be willing to help out if you have a decent explanation. Gracie isn't saying too much, she wants you to tell me yourself, what ever that means."

"Tomorrow night? That will work. Ummm, can you put Grace back on please? I need to ask her a few more things."

"Sure thing kiddo, just make it fast, we're running out of quarters."

Connor heard bits of conversation before Grace came back on.

"Gracie?" he asked, unable to wipe the grin from his face.

"Don't even think about calling me that again," she threatened, "How did your night go, did you catch the grave robbers?"

"No. We didn't even see a graveyard matching your description."

"How can that be?" she cut him off "there has to be like a million graves to rob in that city. This graveyard was kinda familiar looking too, with all of its wrought iron and stuff. If it weren't for the fact the people were digging my this little wooden cross, I would have thought it was some garden. It has to be on our patrol route or something."

Connor had stopped listening when Grace mentioned an old garden. His heart was racing far to fast to be healthy.

"Are you sure it was grave robbery?"

"Pretty sure."

"Shit!" he growled before slamming the phone down. He raced into his room to grab a few weapons and his coat. He was almost out the door when he heard Illyria's voice.

"Where are we going?"

He turned and found her waiting patiently, head tilted with curiosity.

The last thing Illyria remembered was sitting at a diner table with Connor, looking through a device he told her would play music for money. She had seen a title, when a wave a fimiliarity flowed through her. She recalled a memory from Fred's mind, that involved the song. Before she realized what was happening, she heard her voice talking about the memory as though it were her own. But she had no control over what she was saying, as though her body was no longer her own. Then she had seen Connor, and felt like it was their first meeting in a very long time. This had infuriated her, why should her memory become so weak? She saw Connor everyday. She had fought to yell this before blacking out.

The next thing she recalled was waking up in Connor's backroom. She could hear him speaking on the phone.

He had heard his voice get more emotional, before he yelled "Shit" and slammed the phone back down. She assumed Grace was on the other end, and if that was his reaction, it could only mean she had failed in saving the Host. She felt anger. She had told Connor that the girl was too inexperienced to save another's life. And now he was dead.

Connor had come into the room without even glancing her way. He grabbed a series of stakes, and a longsword that he tried to cover with a jacket. When he began to go to the door Illyria wondered why he was reacting this way to Lorne's death. It didn't seem to correlate with the pain she had seen when the others had mourned her destruction of Fred. Even if Wesley had tried to smash her head in with a battler axe. She followed him soundlessly to the door.

"Where are we going?"

Connor stared. She was up and moving around as though nothing was wrong.

"I'm going to the Hyperion. I think the grave robbers grace had a vision of went there last night while we were on patrol. You should stay here and rest though. Besides, Grace might call again."

"I am not weak,

Connor sighed and nodded his head as they left. No matter what he said he couldn't convince Illyria to change into Fred's form, so he tried his best to ignore those who stared at her as they made their way across town. During this time, he filled Illyria in on Grace's report.

"So Lorne will help us if we are honest?"

"Thats what he said, but he won't believe my story." Connor answered "I don't even believe my story half the time. What we need is one of those box things that you smashed. When you broke it around me, all my memories came back."

"I can return to Vale's residence and look for any he might have kept." Illyria felt herself shake at this. She hadn't returned to that place since the night of the last battle. She wondered if Wesley's body was still on the floor. She didn't want to see that, but she could search all the other rooms.

When they got to the Hyperion, Connor hesitated at the door.

"I turned the garden around back into a cemetery last time I was here. I buried Gunn's body, and put my father and Spikes ashes in some jars and buried them with their friend." His voice was shaking. "The last time I had been here when my father was alive, all I could think about was how much I hated him, and how much I wanted to hurt him. I owed him so much more then that."

"It is in the past now," Illyria whispered. She did not know how to comfort, but she hoped her words could help on some level.

Connor nodded and they crossed through the door way. The moment she set foot in the lobby she felt something was wrong. Some stray pieces of paper were out of place, and in the lobby's center, there were burnt out candles circling the pentagram. She knew what felt off in the air, there were traces of magic that she hadn't felt since she left Wolfram & Hart.

"They were here," she muttered as she drifted around the candles, "I can feel it."

"They probably did a spell to see if the bodies were anywhere on the hotel grounds. Come on." He led the way to the back entrance. The door was still open, and some leaves and dirt had blown in from the garden. He broke into a run, not caring if an ambush was waiting for them out there. He rushed through the small green space. It showed signs of being used recently. There were broken twigs, disturbed dirt from people walking through. He came to the small space where no plants had been growing. Three roughly hewn wooden crosses still stood in the dirt. Grass had grown over the dirt mounds that had covered one of the jars and Gunn. But the center grave was nothing more then an empty hole in the ground, with it's cross slanted oddly, as though confused as to whether it was still needed as a grave marker.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to go down to that law firm and tear each and every lawyer apart. But all he could do was stand there, his entire body shaking from frustration.

Illyria was standing behind him. He hadn't heard her approach, in fact, he still couldn't hear any noise to suggest her presence, but he knew she was there. They stood like that for a few moments. Finally he he couldn't take the silence.

"He's gone. They took him."

"Maybe it was Spike's ashes they took. Who is to say that it was truly Angel they wanted back?"

"They wouldn't have use for Spike, and it wasn't Angel they wanted. They either wanted to piss me off, or they wanted Angelus." He knelt down next to Spike's grave and started digging into the dirt. "If they only wanted to last option, their gonna get both results," he growled.

"What are you doing?" Illyria stared.

"Taking Spike with us. I'm not going to give them the option of coming back and stealing him as well. You remember what the Slayer said, they probably wouldn't come back with a soul, and I doubt we could fight both of them."

Illyria went back inside while he dug, and he was cleaning off the jar when she returned with a well worn backpack. She handed it to him. He accepted it and put the jar into the bag.

"Thanks. Where did you find it?"

"It belongs to Grace."

Connor smiled at the fact that Illyria had just stolen the pack. He was grateful that she had come up with a way to hide the ashes while they transported them across town, but he would have to remember to have Illyria return it before Grace's return.

They stayed up that night, researching resurrection spells, and their effects on vampires. And Connor also studied the history of Angelus. He eventually fell asleep, and Illyria kept watch over the office the entire night.

In Wolfram & Hart, preparations were also underway. Angelus looked over the members of the newly formed Circle. The numbers were smaller then the previous one. No doubt he had Angel and his little do-gooders to thank for that one. After the open slaughter of the previous Circle of the Black Thorn, many were quick to decline entry into to society. '_Cowards'_ his mind hissed '_Angel is gone and they are still afraid to come on out. We'll fix that soon enough though.'_

"Lindsey, care to explain what happened last night?" he glared at the man. Angel had never fully trusted him, and oddly enough he found hismelf in agreement with that pansy's character judgment.

The man glared cooly at the vampire, showing nothing more then annoyance. His forehead had a bandage where a headbutt had drawn blood. "I'm a little foggy, that headbanging bastard is to blame for that. But I had tracked Lorne down last night to some karaoke bar. He fled out the back door pretty fast after listening to a few singers. Maybe he saw their destiny to be telling police about the murder of a green man to police. I don't know what caused it, but he cleared out pretty fast."

"Did you sing?" Angelus mocked.

"I'm not an idiot," Lindsey hissed. "I followed him out of the bar and cornered him in the alley that ran behind the place. Last thing I remember is him hitting some sort of ear bleeding note and him wailing his head against mine. I came to in the alley this morning and saw that my gun was missing a bullet. So I must have gotten one good shot in before he knocked me out."

"And the stab wound?" a heavily cloaked demon at the far end of the table asked.

Lindsey glared at the creature. It was a demon who was one of the last of his kind, but exiled from associating with the few of his like that still existed after a few "questionable" acts of dark magic and dimension jumping.

"I really don't remember, but I probably got it when he was headbutting me or something."

"Lindsey, its imperative that you kill him. Wolfram & Hart gave you the opportunity to come back and avenge your death. And now I'm being nice and letting you join my little club," the vampire smiled wickedly, "But for anything to get done, I need that last fragment of Angel investigations to be taken care of. Once they are all dead, demons won't be afraid to walk around again. And then we can start playing with that hellmouth that is just starting to open up under this city."

Lindsey nodded calmly.

An hour later the meeting was finally complete, but Angelus held the cloaked demon back as the others left.

"What do you make of his story?"

"I think that he is holding back some details," the demon replied calmly, "but I cannot blame him. I probably wouldn't give much information either if it involved telling about how a sad excuse of a demon like Lorne succeeded in beating me twice."

Angelus laughed at this. "And your girl you told me you were recruiting? Is she on her way over?"

The cloaked form shifted slightly. "Apparently she woke a while ago. From what I could gather from the doctors, it correlated to around the time of Angel's last stand. I've been using Wolfram & Hart's connections today though, and have managed to confirm that she was seen shortly after that getting tickets to come to America. She might already be in the city. Starting tomorrow I'm going to investigate anything associated with her father or Angel Investigations. She might be drawn to anything like that."

"I'd suggest you keep an eye on the Hyperion, that seems to be some sort of homing beacon for all things related to Angel."

The demon nodded and started to walk away.

"And Carlen?" The demon faced Angelus once more.

"Wait till tomorrow night to go there. I want to go with you and pick up a few things." The vampire smiled wickedly, thinking out his plans to add another vampire to the Circle.

Fin for now. R&R is appreciated. I'll work on getting the next chapter up as soon as possible. I've had a poll going on what characters you guys would want to see come back. Poll is still open, so feel free to go vote. At the moment Darla and Spike are in the lead.


	7. arrivals

**Wow, this has been a long time coming. Sorry about the wait folks. I wanted to work out some ideas before continuing. Also, when I originally typed this chapter, it was a lot longer. I ended up having to find a place to break it up, as I felt that too much had happened in one chapter. **

**So... I don't own Buffyverse.**

arrivals

It was almost noon and Illyria was getting restless. Connor was still asleep on the couch with the thick books spread all around him. As for Grace, the quarter demon had yet to call them, so Illyria could only assume that meant she and the Host hadn't yet arrived. She was unwilling to leave Connor while he slept, so this left her pacing the two small rooms. She was glad when a knock on the door forced her out of this monotony.

She quickly reverted back to Fred's form before opening the door. Ever since the incident in the diner, Illyria had been cautious about returning to this form, but she knew Connor would be unpleased if she exposed her true identity to a mortal. Standing in the door way was Dawn Summers.

"Oh, good you guys are here. You must have forgotten to flip your sign this morning, I was afraid no one would be here," the girl rambled as she came into the office. Illyria remained silent as she let the girl past, and closed the door after her. Dawn didn't seem to notice the other woman's silence, as she continued speaking. "So, here is the last book for your reference collection. Though, if you need more help on any 'cases,' you guys can always give me a call, I'd be more than willing to help."

"I'll be sure to relate that message to Connor when he wakes," Illyria answered after a moment of silence she realized she was expected to fill.

"What?" the girl asked.

"Don't worry about it, I'm up now," a groggy male voice came from behind. "I forgot you were due in today," Connor muttered to Dawn as he rummaged around the coffee station. "It's a good thing though; we've run into a bit of a crisis thing here."

"What happened?"

"Wolfram & Hart dug up Angel's ashes the other night. We're pretty sure that it means that they are going to try bringing Angelus back. We brought back Spike's ashes so they couldn't come back for seconds." He nodded to the jar on top of the bookshelf. Dawn found that all she could do was stare. To hear that Spike was dead was one thing, but to actually see his faces in front of her was another thing. They sat there, confirming that the snarky vampire was indeed gone. Finally, the first part of what Connor had actually said registered in her mind.

"Shit."

"Pretty much," the boy said, taking a swig of warm soda.

* * *

"Come on Gracie, time to wake up."

The young woman on the back seat of Lorne's car groaned. Her shoulder and arm still felt like shit, and sleeping in the back of a car probably didn't help matters. She looked around and saw that they were on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

They had taken turns driving the car almost nonstop to get to the city in record time. Lorne had insisted on taking longer shifts driving, saying Grace needed to rest her arm and if she drove them off the road because she blacked out from blood lost they wouldn't be to do anyone any good.

"What?" she moaned as she pulled herself through to the passenger seat.

"Good morning to you too sunshine. I need you to tell me where to go from here."

"We need to get to the office probably. Can we stop at the Hyperion first though? I would really like being out of these clothes."

"I can understand."

The drive to the hotel was a quite one. The silence was only broken when Grace told Lorne where the new office for Angel Investigations was located. Lorne pulled up in front of the hotel and looked sadly at the dark building. "I think I'm just gonna drop you off here, maybe circle around the block a couple of times. I may be back, but I'm not ready for a trip down memory lane just yet."

"I can understand that," Grace said kindly. It had been hard for her to go into the hotel the first time, and she had never physically been there. "I shouldn't be more than ten minutes."

He watched her climb out of the car and head up the pathway. As he drove off, he couldn't rid himself of the nagging feeling that something very bad was coming. He hoped it was just because he was back in LA.

* * *

Grace was on edge the moment she stepped into the Hyperion. Something was wrong. There were burnt out candles on the floor, and the entire place felt off. Not daring to explore and see what else had changed she went as silently as she could to the room she had been using, keeping her back to the wall as much as possible.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath. The door to her room was slightly ajar, and she knew she had shut it before leaving. She tried to remind herself that Illyria could have gone in. The has-been god king still didn't fully understand privacy, and wouldn't think to close a door after her. Reassuring herself that it had been Illyria that left the door like this, she crossed the door way quickly.

Today was not a good day she realized. In fact the past 24 hours hadn't even come close to decent. She had been threatened, shot, crammed in a small car for hours on end with a demon with an obsession for Karaoke Classics, and now there was an effing hooded stranger in her room. He had his back to her, but by his build she was going to assume he was a demon. She now wished that she had replaced the rooms blown light bulb so she could get a better look at the stranger. Her mind quickly whirled through her options. She had lost her only knife in Lindsey and she had left his gun on the back seat of Lorne's car. Fighting wasn't an option, her wound wasn't fully healed and the swift climb up the stairs had been enough of a trial on her sore and tired body. She eased back to the door slowly; her best chances of survival were to...

"Running away?" the stranger mocked.

Grace froze. She knew that voice. It had been so long since she had last heard it she almost didn't believe it.

"I'm surprised you made it out here so swiftly," the demon said as he lowered his hood.

"Carlen?" Grace gasped. Standing before her was the demon that had helped raise her. The man she thought of as her father before going into her comma so many years ago. "Where have you been? I asked at the hospital, but they had no idea where you were since you were using a bloody return address in Siberia. Where's Mom, how is..."

Carlen cut off her line of questions. "I've been here and there. The scourge ceased to be a threat a few months into your coma, but I still moved around. As for your mother, well she and I parted ways and she... settled down."

Something was wrong Grace realized. She hadn't left the hospital staff any way to find her. In fact, with the exception of a few airline personnel, no one in Ireland knew she had come to LA, let alone this long closed down hotel. "Carlen, how'd you find me?"

The older demon paused a moment. "Some associated of mine helped me track you down when I found out that you were awake. They've been interested in you for a few years now. Your sight would be very useful to them Grace, and they wanted me to extend an invitation to you. If you impress them enough, you might even be brought into their inner circle."

"Now now, let's not give her the wrong idea. To get into the circle she would have to impress me, not all the Partners." A silky voice said from behind. Grace turned quickly and found herself making eye contact with a certain dark haired vampire for the first time.

"Angel," she wasn't sure if she actually said it or if the sounds had just escaped on her lips.

The man smiled. "Close, so close, just a soul off really."

"Angelus," she snarled.

"Gracie," he purred. "So, what do you have to say to our little offer?" he asked as he made his way towards her. She tried to keep an equal space between the two of them, but soon found herself being pinned still by Carlen. Angelus finally closed in on the girl, the smirk not coming off his face. "I'm still waiting for that answer Gracie. You do understand that this is a onetime only option, right? And now is the best time to join, with Wolfram & Hart just reopening there will be plenty of opportunities to move up on the ladder. And, if you impress me, you'll be in the Circle of the Black Thorn in no time. And judging by what I see," the vampire's eyes scanned her from top to bottom hungrily, "I think I could be very impressed." With the final words he caressed her cheek.

She finally pulled free of Carlen's grasp and the demon took a step back. She glared into Angelus's eyes. "Screw you," she hissed.

"Is that an offer?"

"It's a no."

"That really is too bad." Angelus made a swing with his fist, and Grace barely avoided it by ducking. She tried to kick the vampire away, only to get her leg ensnared in his iron grip and find herself thrown to the ground. She quickly struggled up and made a bolt for the door. She felt a firm hand on her shoulder as Angelus hissed, "No you don't." This time, he threw her across the room with much more force. Her body collided with the balcony's glass doors, and she gasped in pain as thousands of pieces of glass went into her back and side as she passed through the door frame. She tried to get up, only to be rewarded with glass cutting into her palms. Before she could even get onto her knees, someone was by her side and pulled her up by the front of her shirt.

Once more she was looking into his dark eyes. She was aware of Carlen watching from the shattered doors. The demon had never tried to intervene for her during this short fight. She watched Angelus's face, choosing not to acknowledge the traitor. He smirked, "I do love the taste of psychic." Before she could react, his fangs were in her neck. She tried to force him away, but it was no use. Her body was too broken, her blood loss too great. The world around her faded to black, and soon her eyes closed.

Angelus finally came away from his meal and looked at the limp form in his arms. She was no longer breathing, but he twisted her neck as a precaution, smiling when he heard the tell tale sharp crack. With ease, he tossed her body over the railing and watched it fall three flights before colliding with the hard walkway below.

He smiled again as he saw an old red car pull up and a brightly colored figure jumped out. Lorne rushed to the girl's body and then stared up at Angelus. The vampire gave a quick wave before going back into the building. He had no intention of going after the green coward. He would let Lindsey take care of him. Without a word, Carlen followed the vampire through the hotel's long empty halls. There was no emotion on his face, though Angelus knew the demon was probably irked that his weapon had denied the training he had been priming for her.

Below, Lorne tried to scoop up Grace's body as gently as he could without wasting time. He placed her still and bloody body in the backseat. After doing this, he realized that his hands were shaking. He got behind the wheel and sped off. He began to recall where Grace had told him to find the new Angel Investigations. AS he drove into the night, he fought back tears of anger, frustration and sorrow.

**So let me know what you think, that's what the review thing is for. The next chapter will be up soon.**

**-SK**


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